Some principals may have gotten bonuses, Columbus district says

Some principals in one of three Ohio school districts accused of changing attendance records to boost their state report card numbers might have received financial bonuses as a result, according to the superintendent of Columbus schools.

Superintendent Gene Harris told The Columbus Dispatch in a story published Tuesday that under the district's "gainsharing" program, schools could qualify for bonuses by improving student performance.

"Principals and teachers shared in gainsharing bonuses," Harris said.

Harris said that she didn't direct or know about the effort, but that some of her 200 principals told her in June that they were trained in how to change data by a now-reassigned official.

"There is no reason that I would direct or stand behind any of this," Harris said. "There is no way I would condone this. There's no way in heck that I'm going to find that some of these practices are legitimate, that I'm going to defend them."

Harris said that she and other district leaders are going to "right this ship."

She said that will include reviewing state-reported data at the senior leadership level every reporting period and creating an accountability committee led by her second-in-command, John Stanford.

Harris was unable to say whether the scandal could have repercussions for more district employees than two who have been reassigned or suspended.

Michael Dodds, an executive over 26 schools, has been the only one suspended because records showed he changed data for numerous schools, Harris said.

Columbus is one of three Ohio school districts targeted by state investigations into enrollment and attendance practices. The others are the Lockland School District in the Cincinnati area and Toledo Public Schools.

Last week, the Lockland district board put its superintendent, Donna Hubbard, on paid leave while it investigates allegations that 36 students who were often absent during the 2010-2011 school year were coded as having withdrawn from their schools.

Toledo Superintendent Jerome Pecko acknowledged to The Blade last month that schools in his district retroactively withdrew and re-enrolled chronically absent students to erase their poor attendance records.